Glassdoor Reviews

[Mustawd]

t's the sort of thing a frustrated underling who doesn't have to deal directly with publishers would think about the company's situation, never mind that 8/10 or 9/10 of all the other third-party developers had closed their doors.

Speaking as someone who's left his own review on glassdoor when I left my public accounting firm, as well as knowing some other colleagues who have done the same, these reviews all follow the same pattern: Hard working individuals who really enjoy working with the people around them but are frustrated with what they see as overall mismanagement of a company's resources. These reviews don't strike me as people with an axe to grind. If anything they read almost identical to what I wrote myself years ago. To me they ring pretty true. Especially since you tend to see the same themes repeated over and over again.

Sure, take it with a grain of salt, but I'd say these read pretty accurate.

 

[I'm Big Into Anal]

every single person ive met who has been let go/moved on/downgraded/managed out in a job where i have worked has been a colossal asshole/lazy asshole/corrupt asshole/general asshole or mentally ill

these 'reviews' are nothing more than the tears of crybabies and narks

no time for either of them; do your job properly or gtfo

 

[Mustawd]

Hi Feargus.

 

[Chris Avellone]

I can’t speak to about half of the issues in these, but employees who leave rarely leave on great terms (there’s a reason they leave), so you get a lot of bias with people who have left vs. those still employed. I would take the “former employee” reviews with a grain of salt.

I will say while lack of promotion might be a negative, promotions are likely limited by necessity at Obsidian, as there’s not a lot of projects, and that is one reason why people leave (which isn’t the company’s fault).

I did notice the negative reviews are in the past year except for the positive “paid featured” one - which I don’t understand why it’s fake, since it seems like a real review.

 

[Mustawd]

Chris, I'm sure you know the company very well, but I have to disagree with you when you say

employees who leave rarely leave on great terms (there’s a reason they leave)

When there is very little upward mobility leaving is almost a necessity. This is definitely true in my industry where the person ahead of you isn't leaving and all you can do is wait for them to die or retire. So the natural response is to go elsewhere. It doesn't necessarily mean you leave on bad terms. Again, in my industry this is a common occurrence.

But fair point on the negative reviews being within the last year. That could mean these reviews are outliers, or worse case scenario, it could mean there is a new recent trend that exists that these reviews are capturing. Since obsidian is not a huge company, it's hard to know which is which, as the sample size is going to be small regardless.

 

[Chris Avellone]

When there is very little upward mobility leaving is almost a necessity. This is definitely true in my industry where the person ahead of you isn't leaving and all you can do is wait for them to die or retire. So the natural response is to go elsewhere. It doesn't necessarily mean you leave on bad terms. Again, in my industry this is a common occurrence.

No, that's fair - that's a valid reason to leave.

When I say "rarely leave on great terms" in relation to no upward promotion, I should re-clarify as it might be a situation that can't be helped in a small company - there's only so many projects. If they purposely withhold a promotion or title or ignore someone that deserves promotion, then I would view it negatively.

Although reading the reviews, I didn't get the sense from what I was reading that the lack of promotion/opportunities necessarily had to be that way (cycling leads isn't a bad idea - I've always supported that, but I don't support co-leads unless they have very different lead skills). It sounds like a roadmap to promotion might be lacking, too, in which case, that's not a difficult fix, either.

But I would hesitate to judge the situation on the reviews - that's a small sample size, as you say.

 

[Mustawd]

Fair enough. I was talking from a viewpoint of a company with 200K+ employees.

 

[Ninjerk]

I haven't seen him rate a post before. How does one earn a brofist from Chris Avellone?

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[I'm Big Into Anal]

plus a LOT of felching

 

[aweigh]

holy shit. I just discovered you can move the systray icons around by click-dragging them.

 

[Blakemoreland Hybrid Boss]

Glassdoor is cancer.

Fanboysm is cancer. The idea that you can extract information from a fight between two people is just common sense that we apply in our daily lives. But hey, that's Obsidian. Sure it must be all fake, right?

When the Obsidian story is made into a major motion picture or prestige cable drama, do you think Dan Harmon would make a good Feargus (imagine him without the beard)?

 

[fantadomat]

Glassdoor is cancer. Even if some of these reviews are from actual developers, they are still probably 50/50 with troll reviews, u cant except objective review from bitter worker who was kicked out, or left... Its never Black and White situation, and there is bigger possibility that bitter worker will want to shit on previous company on internet anonimously, than dev who left on good terms who dont care about writing positive reviews on internet about his previous company. So you dont have even good comparison. Developers can easily find out about company with few phones with actual people, non anonymous faggots, its not big industry.

Glassdoor or what ever its name is,have a positive side. It keeps retarded millennials jobless and away from studios. Shame that studios are recruiting people from tumblr and other retarded sites like it. Anyway,you must be pretty stupid to look at such sites like glassdoor when it comes to work. If you are veteran,then you know people that could tell you about certain studio's working conditions,if you are nubie then you should care and just pick the job. Chances like this don't come to everyone,there is a lot of jobless with high education.

 

[thesheeep]

there is a lot of jobless with high education.

Location:Bulgaria

Ahem...


The only higher jobless percentage of people with high education I know of is people who studied something nobody needs.
Stuff like philosophy, literature, history, religion, etc.
Anything artsy is risky as well. That includes many jobs in the games business, though, so you are at least partly right.

Study something useful like IT, physics, or anything that gets you in an engineering direction, and you're good to go.

Besides, in a great deal of cases people are jobless because they don't dare moving away from their local shithole for a job.
Well-deserved fate then, IMO. Lazyness and lack of self-sufficiency is not very attractive.

Edit:
Rate this post shit to out yourself as someone who wasted years of their life on something that was unlikely to get them a paid job to begin with.

 

[fantadomat]

Chris, I'm sure you know the company very well, but I have to disagree with you when you say

employees who leave rarely leave on great terms (there’s a reason they leave)

When there is very little upward mobility leaving is almost a necessity. This is definitely true in my industry where the person ahead of you isn't leaving and all you can do is wait for them to die or retire. So the natural response is to go elsewhere. It doesn't necessarily mean you leave on bad terms. Again, in my industry this is a common occurrence.

But fair point on the negative reviews being within the last year. That could mean these reviews are outliers, or worse case scenario, it could mean there is a new recent trend that exists that these reviews are capturing. Since obsidian is not a huge company, it's hard to know which is which, as the sample size is going to be small regardless.

When people leave a company on ok therms,they don't go on some retarded site to waste hours writing a review about a company that doesn't give two shits about them. Butthurt or deeply affected people waste time to write a review. Also i don't get peoples expectations for promotions,it is not like you can become the boss in a few years. It is not like the company have endless amount of lead positions. In big companies they do create a drove of pointless positions,where everyone is a manager of someone and something. Being a manager of two people,doing the same job as them and getting the same money.

 

[fantadomat]

there is a lot of jobless with high education.

Location:Bulgaria

Ahem...


The only higher jobless percentage of people with high education I know of is people who studied something nobody needs.
Stuff like philosophy, literature, history, religion, etc.
Anything artsy is risky as well. That includes many jobs in the games business, though, so you are at least partly right.

Study something useful like IT, physics, or anything that gets you in an engineering direction, and you're good to go.

Besides, in a great deal of cases people are jobless because they don't dare moving away from their local shithole for a job.
Well-deserved fate then, IMO. Lazyness and lack of self-sufficiency is not very attractive.

I was talking about the US and Western Europa,not about my country. Also i am economist drop out ,wasted two years of my life instead of doing shit.
Here we don't have the same problem,we do have really strong IT core and lot of firms,also really good human resource. Most people with literature,religion and history do find satisfying jobs,not racking in the money,but do the things they love. Far better than making the big money and being miserable.

 

[rohand]

So Jorge "Oscuro" Salgado still hard a work at Obsidian

 

[Spectacle]

Executive producer holds all the power.
Get out of the way of your top talent, and hire top talent to fill in where leadership is lacking
Sense that if not an owner idea, it’s not going to go anywhere

I mean, if you work for someone else, it's obvious that you're not the one that will make decisions.
I don't get those people, if they want to have more authority than the owners/producers, get out and start your own company.

In a small business with only one boss, sure. In a medium size or larger company then the owner should have faith in the people he's hired and let them make decisions in their area of expertise. A lot of businesses fail because the CEO tries to micromanage everything even if he doesn't have enough knowledge to make good decisions.

 

[ga♥]

No, that's fair - that's a valid reason to leave.

When I say "rarely leave on great terms" in relation to no upward promotion, I should re-clarify as it might be a situation that can't be helped in a small company - there's only so many projects. If they purposely withhold a promotion or title or ignore someone that deserves promotion, then I would view it negatively.

Although reading the reviews, I didn't get the sense from what I was reading that the lack of promotion/opportunities necessarily had to be that way (cycling leads isn't a bad idea - I've always supported that, but I don't support co-leads unless they have very different lead skills). It sounds like a roadmap to promotion might be lacking, too, in which case, that's not a difficult fix, either.

But I would hesitate to judge the situation on the reviews - that's a small sample size, as you say.

They say you can expect true sincerity just by your enemies. Also I agree that when you leave, you don't usually do that on good terms (I think I did it just once, and it was my first experience) but I wouldn't say that those that are still employed are necessarily happy... they can be sharing the same views but they still weren't able to find a better opportunity.

Btw you didn't answer my question in your topic, MCA, it was about your role in Obsiddian

 

[Dexter]

I'd just like to point out that everyone, yes even you valued Codex shitposter, can use Glassdoor to smear or make fun of a company you dislike or maybe like a little too much at the click of a button, since they aren't actually requiring any form of authentification that you've ever actually worked for them or of who you are:

 

[Mustawd]

since they aren't actually requiring any form of authentification that you've ever actually worked for them or of who you are:

Dexter , most review websites don't/ So I don't see the relevance here.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I'd just like to point out that everyone, yes even you valued Codex shitposter, can use Glassdoor to smear or make fun of a company you dislike or maybe like a little too much at the click of a button, since they aren't actually requiring any form of authentification that you've ever actually worked for them or of who you are:

you didn't even touch on the reality of glassdoor:
it's full of fake reviews from the employers themselves, or by employees forced to write reviews(yes, that happens)

 

[Dexter]

since they aren't actually requiring any form of authentification that you've ever actually worked for them or of who you are:

Dexter , most review websites don't/ So I don't see the relevance here.

You don't see the relevance about a "review website" ostensibly for "Industry Insiders" that every single one of the posters in this thread can write a review on purporting they are the former CEO or COO/CTO of a random multinational conglomerate, and the only authentification required for this being whether the reviewer provided a valid E-Mail, beyond that nobody even checking up on any of the information provided. Wouldn't you think it would be wise to question the kind of "accuracy" of information that would provide or whether it is a great playground for trolls?

 

[Mustawd]

since they aren't actually requiring any form of authentification that you've ever actually worked for them or of who you are:

Dexter , most review websites don't/ So I don't see the relevance here.

You don't see the relevance about a "review website" ostensibly for "Industry Insiders" that every single one of the posters in this thread can write a review on purporting they are the former CEO or COO/CTO of a random company, and the only authentification required being whether the reviewer provided a valid E-Mail, beyond that nobody even checking up on anything and the kind of "accuracy" of information that would provide?

No I don't. As the mechanics basically mirror every review mechanic on any website. Yelp, Steam, amazon. It has the exact type of mechanics.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

since they aren't actually requiring any form of authentification that you've ever actually worked for them or of who you are:

Dexter , most review websites don't/ So I don't see the relevance here.

You don't see the relevance about a "review website" ostensibly for "Industry Insiders" that every single one of the posters in this thread can write a review on purporting they are the former CEO or COO/CTO of a random company, and the only authentification required being whether the reviewer provided a valid E-Mail, beyond that nobody even checking up on anything and the kind of "accuracy" of information that would provide?

No I don't. As the mechanics basically mirror every review mechanic on any website. Yelp, Steam, amazon. It has the exact type of mechanics.

steam requiring a verified member that has purchased and played an item is not exactly the same

hope that helps, champ.